We first heard this morning about Ford renaming the Five Hundred sedan after the more popular Taurus it replaced a few years ago. Now, we learn from the Chicago Tribune’s Jim Mateja that not only will the Taurus name be brought back, but so will the Mercury Sable, the “new” name of that brand’s version of the Five Hundred, the Montego. The official announcements and introductions will come tomorrow during the first media day of the Chicago Auto Show. Both the Five Hundred and Montego are built in Chicago.
[Source: Kicking Tires via The Chicago Tribune]
Follow the jump to read what The Chicago Tribune had to say.
Ford to resurrect Taurus, Sable
By Jim Mateja
Tribune auto reporter
Published February 6, 2007, 10:38 AM CST
Less than a year after they disappeared, Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable names are coming back on redesigned versions of the 2008 Five Hundred and Montego sedans.
Mark Fields, president of the Americas for Ford, is expected to announce at the Chicago Auto Show Wednesday the return of Taurus and Sable this summer.
Ford spokesman Jim Cain wouldn't confirm the announcement, saying only that Ford president and CEO Alan Mulally has been interested in the Taurus name since arriving from aviation giant Boeing Co. last year.
It's fitting Taurus and Sable would be brought back at the Chicago Auto Show, considering the original models debuted here in prototype form in 1985 and went on sale Dec. 26 of that year with a rounded jelly bean look that was novel for the time. They replaced the Ford LTD II and Mercury Marquis.
With more than 400,000 annual sales, Taurus was built in two plants, in Chicago and Atlanta. It will be built just in Chicago this time.
Taurus was the last domestic to capture the title of industry's best-selling car between 1992, when it beat out the Honda Accord, and 1997, when it lost out to the Toyota Camry.
In recent years, Taurus has been sold only to fleet customers at a discount.
Reportedly, Freestyle is in line for a name change as well, with some designated, perhaps X, to denote it's a crossover. Five Hundred and Montego haven't sold as well as Ford hoped. Five Hundred sales were down 22 percent last year, to 84,218 units, and Montego sales were off 17.3 percent, to 22,322.
Even as a fleet offering, Taurus outsold Five Hundred last year: 174,803 to 84,218.
